Multimedia Dating...Fiction?

I have been internet dating nine years. It’s almost like a second job—weeding out the scams from Nigeria, the middle-aged fat, bald men who post avatar model pictures to represent themselves, the men who say they are ten years younger, or thousands of dollars richer. But it’s also my own warped escape…I’m like a hamster on a wheel pretending to get somewhere, feeling like I am exercising in the search for my baby’s daddy.

I had just seen the film Trust when this very hot, young man IMed me. Of course, I was suspicious. I told him I had just seen the film Trust and that he could very well be a predator. Being a film major, he had already seen Trust, which I was most impressed by. Plus he had a high gradepoint when he was in high school he claimed during my vetting process, so this too impressed me. The dumb guys never last long when they become offended when I correct their grammar. He wanted me to go on me.tokbox.com so he could prove to me he wasn’t a middle-aged fat, bald man. I, however, thought it was a scam to steal my bank statements. So I slept on it.

But after a day, I decided my curiosity could get the better of me. I went on and checked it out. He had given me an email and password, and although I suspected he could be a terrorist bomber, when I didn’t blow up, I thought perhaps I could let go of a little of my paranoia. So that night, we met on me.tokbox.com. Well, I saw him, but having no web cam, he didn’t see me. He really was a hot, young man, but of age, and yes, I did make him show me his ID. But I told him NOT to show me his penis because I would be TRAUMATIZED.

He inspired a sonnet. I’m always up for a good muse as a writer. But since he is one of those artistic types, I had to lay down the copyright laws right up front. I told him I owned the rights to our dialogue…that it was my play we were writing, not fodder for his next film.

He pushed me into newmedia dating. My girlfriend had told me I could download the skype app to my iphone. I had thought my Silencer Sonnet had scared him off, but the other night, there I was IMing him and downloading the skype app to my iphone, having the most titillating first experience holding up a mirror to my 3GS trying to see his face and my face at the same time on my iphone.

I think it is all fiction. He is creating who he wants me to see and I am writing Haikus for this boy at NYU because I like the way it sounds:

OkCupid

Maybe not cupid
He was too young anyway
New media gone

But while it lasted, it was great fun. And relatively safe, 3000 fictitious miles away.